What is Startup Weekend?

Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities. Come share ideas, form teams, and launch startups.

Past event…

You’ve Always Wanted to be an Entrepreneur? Get Started at Startup Weekend Zagreb!

Startup Weekend, the global phenomenon in which aspiring entrepreneurs engage in an intense, 54-hour-long business plan creation session, is returning to Zagreb. Following the outstanding success of Zagreb’s first SW event, we’re ready for another round, which will take place from the 15th to the 17th of November, 2013.

All Startup Weekend events follow the same basic model: anyone is welcome to pitch their startup idea and receive feedback from their peers. Teams organically form around the top ideas (as determined by popular vote) and then it’s a 54 hour frenzy of business model creation, coding, designing, and market validation. The event culminates with presentations in front of a jury of local entrepreneurial leaders with another opportunity for critical feedback. In addition, top teams will receive prizes which will help them in turning their Startup Weekend idea into a reality.

Many fruitful business ideas, friendships, partnerships, and teams are formed during the event, most of which continue working together on their business ideas long after the event is over. So, if you’re looking to find a business partner with complementary skills, develop a new, implementable business idea, or just learn something new, click on the “Register” button!

Tina Lee Odinsky Zec

Lecturer and Director, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center @ ZSEM

Tina has been teaching Entrepreneurship and Customer Relationship Management at Zagreb School of Economics and Management since 2006 and as a Visiting Professor at Rouen Business School in France since 2010. She mentors 100's of students each year in the development of business plans and customer focused strategies. She is a published author, seasoned public speaker and moderator. Her areas of interest include creativity, social entrepreneurship and local economic development.

Alan Duric

Alan Duric is serial entrepreneur in high tech space, co-founder and CTO at Telio Holding ASA (Oslo stock Exchange: TELIO), the leading European access independent Broadband Telephony/Multi-Modal service provider. Mr. Duric is an early pioneer of VoIP with over a 17 years of active contribution in multi modal communications, through his sw development and standardization work (as a co-author and/or contributor to number of IETF, ETSI and ITU standards).
As a developer and senior systems architect at Ericsson, Mr. Duric took essential part in the early deployment and development of the world's largest VoIP networks such as deltathree.
At Global IP Sound (creators of Skype´s audio), Mr. Duric was Senior Systems Architect, where he steered standardization efforts and was responsible for iLBC (internet Low Bitrate Codec), an IETF and CableLabs standard codec, which instituted royalty free and open source change in the audio and video encoding industry.
Mr.Duric is also Co-founder of Sonorit/Camino networks and was Director of its Board of Directors from its inception until it was acquired by eBay/Skype.
While bootstrapping new startup, Mr.Duric serves as an Advisor to a number of companies within the industry and advises financial institutions in M&A processes.

Hermes Arriaga

He is an agricultural engineer with a post-graduate degree in environmental economics. Hermes has lived and worked in 5 different countries the last 12 years. His previous experience combine technical and commercial skills, experience in different project appraisal tools such as Multi Criteria Analysis and Cost- Benefit methodology (including analysis of social trade offs). He is a Trained LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitator, a strategic creativity practitioner and fond of Art of Hosting methodologies. Hermes co-founded Harvesthink, a conscious tourism project in the Adriatic, he is a partner and consultant in the sustainable landscape architecture studio Naturalistas and is currently director of Impact Hub Zagreb, the first and biggest collaborative space in Croatia for entrepreneurs and social innovators. Hermes understands the value and importance of local contexts and the glocal factor. He has an special affection for entrepreneurship and social change. In short he is an engineer by theory and a creative thinker by practice.

Zdenka Loncar

Assistant Minister, Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts

Zdenka Lončar has been an Deputy Minister at the Croatian Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Crafts since August of 2012. Prior to that, she was a Group Brand Manager for Central Europe South for Philip Morris International from 2008 to 2012. Ms. Loncar also worked as a Marketing Manager for Nestle Adriatic from 2002 to 2008. She also has experience in the tourism industry, where she began her career. She holds an MBA from Cotrugli Business School.

Igor Sabaric

Head of small business center, Zagrebačka banka

Igor Sabaric is a Head of small business center at Zagrebačka banka. He has a graduate degree in economics from Faculty of Economics and Business and also post-graduate degree from the same Faculty. He was also a Head of Unit and Account Manager in Raiffeisenbank. He has a special affection for team leadership, sales skills and managing.

Sofia Sharkova

Diversity Program Manager at Google

Sofia is passionate about diversity, inclusion, entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility. Sofia had her first startup at the age of 19, since then has been actively involved in developing and supporting female entrepreneurship in Europe. At Google Sofia has launched and currently leads several educational women entrepreneurship programs in CEE region (Russia, Poland & Ukraine) that are focused on educating female entrepreneurs on how to develop their business online. She is a mentor for Girls 20 Summit program, actively supports Girl Rising movement and TEDxorganizer for the last 3 years.

Mentors

Ivija Jelavic

Ivija Jelavić was born in Zagreb where she finished undergraduate program and MBA at Zagreb school of economics and management. She is currently working at the ZSEM at the Management Department as a lecturer of Management and Strategic management. She has also participating as visiting scholar program at the John Carroll University and St. Ambrose University, both in the United States. She is active member of several professional organizations and author of dozen scientific and professional articles and her field of interest is entrepreneurship – family businesses.

Dejan Juric

After receiving his Master in Computer Science from ETH in Zurich Dejan moved to the business side and worked for 2.5 years as a strategic management consultant for The Boston Consulting Group advising various companies in different industries on strategic topics.

In 2013 he left the consulting world to follow his passion for technology entrepreneurship. He is currently working on Klimpr, his new venture, which aims to simplify money exchange between friends using smartphones. He also acts as the president of the newly-founded Technology & Entrepreneurship Club in Zurich bringing like-minded people together who are interested in technology and entrepreneurship and was one of the organizers of the Startup Weekend in Zurich.

Jelena Debeljak

Partners for Financial Stability Program, USAID

Having graduated from university in 2006 majoring in philosophy and religion sciences, and after actively working at her faculty's business ethics center, in 2011 Jelena earned her MBA degree from the Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZSEM). In April 2011 she joined USAID’s flagship financial sector project in SEE and Eurasia, the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) program. She's been providing research support on financial sector developments in the region, especially access to finance, project reporting, organization of events and other specified project activities. Prior to that, she served as a teaching assistant at ZSEM for courses in entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, and also in courses such as customer relationship management and journalism. These experiences underlined her deep interest in entrepreneurship and novelty ideas, access to finance, and development.

Helena Habdija

Artist

Helena is an artist, art teacher and book illustrator. Helena was born in Bjelovar, Croatia and completed her studies at the University of Zagreb,Teacher’s Faculty. She is an expert in early childhood learning and development and has continued to receive professional development to remain in touch with emerging pedagogies. Her approach to education values the complete student with an emphasis on bringing out their potential and unleashing their talents. In addition to being responsible for grades 1-4, she is now the full time Art Instructor for Osnova Skola A. G. Matos in Zagreb. She will be on hand throughout Startup Weekend to help participants illustrate their ideas and communicate their visions

Martina Ferk

Head of Development and International Cooperation at MADI Group

Martina is Head of Development and International Cooperation at MADI Group, President of MADI South East Europe, Director of MADI Croatia Ltd. and General Secretary of the International Conference on Entrepreneurial Learning.
She has Bachelor and Masters degree in Business Economics and she is currently enrolled in PhD study at the Faculty of Commercial and Business Sciences, Slovenia. She has worked in MADI since 2013 and she is also a columnist for business.hr

Nikša Gopcevic

Head of digital development department

After a carrier in advertising, working for Croatia`s largest advertising agencies where he was developing digital strategies for clients like HT(Hrvatski telekom) and VIPnet in 2011 he joined Iskon Internet in a new department for development of digital content and non-core projects.
As a head of the department he is in charge of strategic development of web services, mobile applications, OTT products and non-core projects. In the last year his department launched redesigned Iskon Jumbo service (cloud storage service), enabled users in Croatia to view Iskon.TV player (mobile and web TV application) only by paying with „virtual currency“ and launched first fantasy football game based on Champions League in the region.
He is a part of hub:raum Croatia team, Deutsche Telekomstartup programme to scout regional startups for incubators in Krakow and Berlin (https://www.hubraum.com/)
Also his is active as a mentor in Zagrebački inkubator poduzetništa and several startups from Croatia and Slovenia.

Marin Njavro

Marin is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris with a degree in Political Science and a masters degree in Business Law. As a student he founded a record label "Ephenty Records" and published a debut album entitled "Poultry" for a Croatian band called "Scroll". Music videos were featured on Top 20 MTV Adria Rock Charts, rising to the 1st and 3rd place. Scroll performed live two times at the T-Mobile InMusic festival in Zagreb.

Marin also has investment banking experience, working as an intern in Barclays Capital in London within the Sales&Trading division.

Other than his interests in entrepreneurship, finance and law, he is a passionate and more or less successful guitar player (he really tries hard). He loves snowboarding and swimming, but isn't nearly as good of a swimmer as Aleksandar. He speaks English, French, German, Russian and Croatian.

Goran Oblakovic

Lecturer, Zagreb School of Economics and Management

Goran Oblaković is a lecturer at the Management Department of the Zagreb School of Economics and Management. He earned his PhD at St. Gallen University and Switzerland, and earned his Master’s degree in strategic finance and business administration at Indiana University. He has extensive experience working in logistics and consulting, and has worked for corporations such as FedEx, Target, and also for the United Nations. He areas of interest are management, banking, and corporate finance.

Marjeta Tomulic Vehovec

Director, Founder Institute

Marjeta is currently a Director of the Founder Institute chapter in Rijeka, the largest global startup accelerator. She is also the Head of the Legal Department in a startup company, kompare.hr, and a lecturer at ZSEM in international and EU tax law. She holds a bachelors degree in Law, a Master's degree in European and International Economics Law, and a PhD in EU law. She also speaks several foreign languages. she describes working on her own startup projects or helping other people with their projects as her true passion.

Justin Wilcox

Chief Technical Officer, Nimbus Health

Justin Wilcox started his first company at the age of 10, and hasn’t been able to stop. Graduating from Cal Poly’s Computer Science program, Justin worked at Microsoft for five years before leaving to start Nimbus Health – an electronic medical record company. In addition to running Nimbus, he’s launched a couple mobile apps in his spare time, including a top seller in the Travel Category and Bounce on Android. When Justin’s not entrepreneuring, he’s blogging at CustomerDevLabs.com about entrepreneuring or maybe doin’ a little dancing.

Mladen Meter

Mladen Meter is a consultant and the current Managing Director of Business Effectiveness Ltd, a consulting firm. Throughout his career, he has accumulated extensive experience in management positions in multinational firms such as Kaufland, Generali, and Basler. He is a certified controller, as he completed the Controlling Stufenprogramm Österreichisches at Controller-Institut in 2006 in Vienna., and earned his PhD from the University of Split. Dr. Meter is a member of the HAMAG network of certified consultants for the areas of business planning, finance, organization, and business management. He is also a lecturer at ZSEM and a board member of the Croatian Controllers Association.

Mirjana Fijolić

Mirjana Fijolić, marketing and sales consultant, business journalist, trainer. With a desire to help entrepreneurs to start their own businesses, she has launched portal for start-ups www.mojbiz.com. She graduated from the Faculty of Political Science, Journalism and Political Science in Zagreb. In addition, she studied at the London School of Economics and she earned her master's degree in marketing management at Faculty of Economics in Zagreb. She has also worked in the Public Relations office of the World Bank. Mirjana Fijolić is a frequent public speaker on the topics of innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership.

Andreja Rosandic

Regional Sustainability Manager, NESsT

Until 2013, Andreja held the position of Enterprise Development Manager and was responsible for overseeing, managing, planning, implementing, and evaluating of NESsT’s Portfolio in Croatia. Prior to joining NESsT, Andreja worked for the Academy for Educational Development (AED) where she was responsible for managing a variety of small grants for various NGOs. She also worked on several EU projects, as an Evaluator for PHARE 2005 and 2006, as well as a consultant in the field of vocational education. In addition to this, she has also worked as a children’s rights advocate.

Milan Belojevic

Milan was born and raised in Berlin, Germany and moved to Wilcox, Saskatewan, Canada from 2002-2006 where he finished high school as an honor-roll student. He lives in Zagreb since 2006 when he enrolled in the undergraduate program at the ZSEM, from which he graduated in 2010. He was working at ZSEM in the Management Department as a teaching assistant from 2011 to 2012. Currently he is a guest lecturer at ZSEM and at University of Nice, France. In addition he has been working as a Junior Controller for a middle sized, private company operating in the elderly care industry in Berlin, Germany (the Seniorenheim am Lietzensee GmbH) since March 2010. He has been promoted to Controller of the same company in late March 2011 and is still employed in the same position.

Davorin Belamaric

Trainer and consultant with long years experience in leadership, management, leading team development and various management and business skills.
He graduated at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb in 1991 with master degree in Telecommunications. After 5 years of successful engineer career in Vienna, Berlin and Zagreb he has been working for more than 15 years in different management positions in central, southern and east Europe. Since 2005 he is more intensive engaged as a trainer, consultant and coach. He has very strong business background working in large global corporations and international/multicultural environment. He experienced working in different departments: development, consulting, sales and services, in different company life phases: start-up, development, mature phase, restructuring what included also a lot of change management practices. He has experience with leading international teams and units spread across more than 20 European countries. He used to act a manager and leader for more than 15 years in different positions: leading projects, teams or units of more hundreds of employees, leading virtual teams in international environment and using all practices of modern management. Part of his management roles was developing own staff and organization, coaching and mentoring, developing and leading soft skills training and management development programs, dealing with HR topics, implementing service excellence program, etc. He participated in the Senior Leadership Development Programs, Lean Management, Six Sigma, Business Post Graduate Study, Service Excellence Development, Sales Solution Training and many others.

Mirna Marovic

Mirna Marovic is the President and one of the founders of the Croatian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. As the President of CVCA, she is frequently evaluating start-up projects or company financing proposals as president or member of expert committees in various international competitions. She is also a Lecturer at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management (ZSEM), Finance Department. Before joining ZSEM, her former position in Croatia was the Assistant Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. Prior to her return to Croatia in 2004, she was based in London and held corporate and structured finance positions at major investment banks including Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole Indosuez. She holds MBA from INSEAD, undergraduate degree in Economics (B.Sc. (Econ)) from the London School of Economics and has completed Investment Management and Corporate Finance Programmes at the London Business School. She is pursuing the PhD Program in Financial Management at University of Ljubljana.

Draško Ivanišević

After over 10 years of working experience in IT and lots of different projects from small and medium companies to enterprise he joins Microsoft Croatia in Business and marketing organization. Now is active member of leadership team Microsoft Croatia. As Developer and platform Evangelism Lead he is engaging Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) through depth and breadth technical evangelism activities and providing strategic leadership on ISVs across the subsidiary, driving broad customer connection across the Developer, Architect and IT Pro audiences through an integrated approach to evangelism, communities and intelligent audience marketing, promoting enterprise development platform through architects, business decision-makers and partners.

Organizers

Tina Lee Odinsky Zec

Supervisor
Tina has been teaching Entrepreneurship and Customer Relationship Management at Zagreb School of Economics and Management since 2006 and as a Visiting Professor at Rouen Business School in France since 2010. She mentors 100's of students each year in the development of business plans and customer focused strategies. She is a published author, seasoned public speaker and moderator. Her areas of interest include creativity, social entrepreneurship and local economic development.

Anita Flajsik

Assistant Project Manager
Anita has been enrolled in the Zagreb School of Economics and Management’s Undergraduate Program in Economics and Management since 2008, and is currently in the process of completing her final thesis. She has been an active participant of the European Theatre Night project in Dubrava Children’s Theatre since 2009, as part of which she has helped develop and implement strategies concerning the execution of this project in Croatia and in nine other European countries. She is also currently an assistant with the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at ZSEM for the Invest for the Future project.

Mihovil Pobi

Project Manager
Mihovil Pobi is a member of the Management Department at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management, and participated in the execution of the following courses: Management, Strategic Management, Human Resource Management and Operations Management. He is also the Coordinator for the Management MBA Program at ZSEM.

He graduated from the Zagreb School of Economics and Management in 2011 and enrolled in ZSEM’s MBA Program in 2012, specializing in Finance and Banking. As an exchange student, he studied at ESSEC Business School, France and attended a summer school program at IESE Business School, Spain. Before joining ZSEM’s Management Department, he worked for a year as a Finance Assistant at Bina Istra d.d.

Emilija Budimir

Website & Blog
Emilija Budimir is assistant and system administrator at the ICT Department at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management, and participated in the execution of the following courses: Information and Communication technologies, Management of information systems, MS Dynamics NAV. She is also the Coordinator for the Management of information systems MBA Program at ZSEM.
Emilija has a Masters in informatics from Faculty of Organization and Informatics, University of Zagreb and Bachelors degree in Information and business systems from the same Faculty. Her focus is ERP system, Business Process Modeling and E-learning.

Marija Peric

Marketing & Public relations
Marija Perić is a PR advisor Zagreb School of Economics and Management, where she also heads the Schools marketing efforts. She graduated from ZSEM’s Undergraduate Program in Economics and Management in 2008, and from ZSEM’s MBA Program in 2012, in which her thesis focused on the effect of advertising on consumer behavior in higher education. She has been employed at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management since 2008, first as a PR Associate, and then from 2011 as a PR Advisor.